Richard Rapport and Alexander Ipatov successfully defended with black pieces in the 12th round of the World Junior Chess Championship to sign draws against Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Wei Yi respectively and maintain the joint lead heading into the final day of the competition.

Top seed and reigning China champion Ding Liren finally made a move towards the top of the scoreboard as he defeated the Russian representative Aleksandr Shimanov.

Ding Liren is now sharing the 3rd place with Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and there follow Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi and Nils Grandelius with 8,5 points each.

Top round 13 pairings are GM Ding Liren – GM Rapport Richard, GM Ipatov Alexander – GM Shimanov Aleksandr, GM Zherebukh Yaroslav – GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel, GM Grandelius Nils – FM Wei Yi and GM Van Kampen Robin – GM Yu Yangyi. Full pairings here. The last round starts at 11:00 local time, closing ceremony is at 19:00.

All results WJCC Open / Standings Open

In the Girls section WFM Medina Warda Aulia of Indonesia stunned the defending champion and R11 leader WGM Deysi Cori with black pieces, helping the Chinese WGM Guo Qi emerge on top position by defeating WGM Jovana Vojinovic.

WGM Guo Qi

Meanwhile, Belarus champion WGM Nastassia Ziaziulkina and top-seeded IM Anastasia Bodnaruk (Russia) drew their games, and norm-winner Irina Bulmaga (Romania) scored against the talented Julija Osmak (Ukraine) to all join Cori and Medina Warda on the shared 2nd place.

It will be an extremely exciting last round with the top pairings as: WGM Guo Qi – WIM Abdulla Khayala, WFM Medina Warda Aulia – WIM Bulmaga Irina, Ibrahimova Sabina – IM Bodnaruk Anastasia, WGM Cori T Deysi – Wang Jue, WGM Ziaziulkina Nastassia – WFM Kulon Klaudia and WIM Varga Klara – WIM Arabidze Meri.

All results WJCC Girls / Standings Girls

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Photos by Andreas Kontokanis

(see full photo gallery here)

Reports: Round 1 / Round 2 / Round 3 / Round 4 / Round 5 / Round 6 / Round 7 / Round 8 / Round 9 / Round 10 / Round 11